Microbiota bacteriana asociada al papel moneda de circulación en Colombia

Commonly used objects such as currency paper can be colonised by bacteria and can serve as carriers of microbes. This colonisation might expose us to unnoticed pathogenic bacteria. In this study, the researchers obtained a detailed panorama of the microbes that can be carried on currency notes in Colombia by using 454 next-generation deep sequencing of 16S amplicón libraries. A total of 233 bacterial genera were detected and classified, 12 of which are potential human pathogens. The most abundant genera were Propionibacterium, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas. To date, this is the first in-depth analysis of the microbiota carried by circulating banknotes in our continent and it offers insights into daily exposure to microbes when using banknotes in Colombia.